Between their notoriously bad early live performances, a very polarizing debut LP, and unwittingly playing progenitor to the micro-genre questionably dubbed “witch house” and “screwgaze”, among other things, Salem certainly had a lot on their shoulders for their first ever US headlining tour. Since their first release, 2008′s Yes I Smoke Crack, the trio has been cause for a ton of indifferent derision (Salem or no Salem, I couldn’t possibly keep myself as busy on my cellphone as much of the crowd seemed to for the length of their set), a wildly devoted fanbase (I spotted at least two people in the audience decked out as monks, hooded cloaks and all.), and, of course, a whole slew of imitators. All three of those parties, especially the imitators, were represented in full force at the Echoplex last Tuesday night: the first two openers, the Present Moment and Gatekeeper, eschewed the sort of uninspired murky goth and vaguely occultic cliches that you’d expect from members of the “witch house” vanguard.

Third up was Light Asylum, a shockingly good electro duo from Brooklyn who blended their post-punk stylings with an odd, almost industrial twist. Synthman Bruno Coviello layered eerie synth and drum patterns over frontwoman and occasional percussionist Shannon Funchess’ booming vocal delivery and intense stage presence which simultaneously called to mind Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Grace Jones, and even Swans’ Michael Gira at her most menacing moments. By the end of their set, they’d clearly won the full house; a fact evidenced by the merch table selling out of their shirts and CDs not long after the duo left the stage.

Salem finally took the stage around 12:45 a.m., a fog machine billowing plumes of smoke out around three pillars of fluorescent lights as the trio of John Holland, Jack Donoghue and Heather Marlatt took the stage to the sound of what sounded like Gregorians monks gone pear-shaped. Salem wasted no time in beginning their set, blasting in a sample of what sounded like a wall of ominous bass and clattering 808s before segueing into a set of choice cuts from last year’s King Night. I had my doubts about how Donoghue, whose voice is pitch-shifted to an unearthly, grating baritone on record, would sound in the live setting. Even without the vocal effects though, the songs’ menace rang true, especially on album standout “Sick”, whose only decipherable lyric aside from its title is: “first I tie your hands and feet/shh, don’t make a peep.” Heather Marlatt took to the mic occasionally to add her wordless vocal touches to the near-instrumental “Frost” and “Asia” and the closest thing to an accesible single the trio have put out, “Redlights”. The trio closed with a jaw-dropping rework of Euro-house classic “Better Off Alone”, which they of course slowed and pitched down to a stomach-turning rumble.

Especially considering their well-documented live failures early on in their career and the short amount of time the relatively inexperienced trio have had to unpack the deep, self-contained density of King Night for live performance, Salem have done extremely well in translating their eerie variety of music, what ever label you opt to pin on it, to a live setting. Rather than try their hand at the elaborate theatrics that like-minded creeper Fever Ray employs for her positively mind-blowing live show, the trio stick to the sort of shadowy gloom they quite near perfected on their debut. Here’s hoping there’s much more where it came from.

Photography by Samantha Kolden.